12 Rules for Life (Full) ENGLISH

Although the facts cannot speak for themselves (just as an expanse of land
spread out before a voyager cannot tell him how to journey through it), and
although there are a myriad ways to interact with—even to perceive—even a
small number of objects, that does not mean that all interpretations are
equally valid. Some hurt—yourself and others. Others put you on a collision
course with society. Some are not sustainable across time. Others do not get
you where you want to go. Many of these constraints are built in to us, as a
consequence of billions of years of evolutionary processes. Others emerge as
we are socialized into cooperating and competing peacefully and
productively with others. Still more interpretations emerge as we discard
counterproductive strategies through learning. An endless number of
interpretations, certainly: that is not different than saying an endless number
of problems. But a seriously bounded number of viable solutions. Otherwise
life would be easy. And it’s not.
Now, I have some beliefs that might be regarded as left-leaning. I think,
for example, that the tendency for valuable goods to distribute themselves
with pronounced inequality constitutes an ever-present threat to the stability
of society. I think there is good evidence for that. That does not mean that the
solution to the problem is self-evident. We don’t know how to redistribute
wealth without introducing a whole host of other problems. Different
Western societies have tried different approaches. The Swedes, for example,
push equality to its limit. The US takes the opposite tack, assuming that the
net wealth-creation of a more free-for-all capitalism constitutes the rising tide
that lifts all boats. The results of these experiments are not all in, and
countries differ very much in relevant ways. Differences in history,
geographic area, population size and ethnic diversity make direct
comparisons very difficult. But it certainly is the case that forced
redistribution, in the name of utopian equality, is a cure to shame the disease.
I think, as well (on what might be considered the leftish side), that the
incremental remake of university administrations into analogues of private
corporations is a mistake. I think that the science of management is a pseudo-
discipline. I believe that government can, sometimes, be a force for good, as
well as the necessary arbiter of a small set of necessary rules. Nonetheless, I
do not understand why our society is providing public funding to institutions
and educators whose stated, conscious and explicit aim is the demolition of
the culture that supports them. Such people have a perfect right to their